Circuit Judge J. Kevin Abdoney handed down the sentence Jan. 5 in a Bartow courtroom, more than five years after the stabbing deaths of Edie Yates Henderson and David Henderson inside their home in the quiet Lake Morton neighborhood.
Waldon received death sentences for each of the two 1st-degree murder convictions against him. He also received life without the possibility of parole for convictions on burglary of a dwelling with battery involving a firearm, 2 counts of kidnapping and robbery with a firearm.
Waldon was sentenced to 15 years for attempted arson and arson. He received 5 years each for grand theft of a motor vehicle and tampering with physical evidence.
“The brutal murders of Edie Yates Henderson and David Henderson will always be remembered as a terrible tragedy in our community,“ said Brian Haas, state attorney for the 10th Judicial Circuit, which includes Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties. “The death sentence that my prosecutors secured was certainly warranted.
“It is my hope that the conclusion of the criminal case will bring some level of closure to the families of the victims,” Haas added via email. “Going forward, the focus should be on the great lives lived by Mr. and Mrs. Henderson, the impact they had on our community and the legacy they left behind.”
Jury at trial was not unanimous
A jury recommended Waldon die by lethal injection by an 11-1 vote on Feb. 6, 2024. Days earlier, the same jury had convicted Waldon, 41, of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder for killing the Hendersons Nov. 10, 2020, a crime that sent shock waves across Lakeland.
Waldon's defense had challenged Florida’s new capital sentencing scheme, which passed in 2023, allowing a death sentence on a jury recommendation of 8-4. Previously, a unanimous jury recommendation was needed for a judge to impose capital punishment.
In Abdoney’s order, he went over both aggravating and mitigating factors raised by both the prosecution and defense during the trial and in hearings since Waldon’s convictions.
In the end, the heinous, cold, calculated and premeditated aggravating circumstances, among others, outweighed the mitigating factors, which Waldon had declined to present during the trial.
The judge’s order recapped some of the more horrific moments during testimony and evidence presented at the trial to explain how heavily the court weighed the aggravating factors.
The prominent Lakeland couple had been stabbed 23 times upstairs in their bedroom with a large kitchen knife missing from a butcher block in their home.
They had been bound and held at gunpoint, the judge said, reading from the sentencing order.
Edie Henderson had been in the shower when confronted by her attacker. Her husband had been stabbed in the back through a vertebra and the wife through 2 of her ribs. It took 12 minutes for the couple to die of their stab wounds.
Judge reviewed defense's mitigating factors
The mitigating factors were addressed by the judge too. They had been raised after the trial during 3 parts of a Spencer hearing lasting several days.
The defense had argued Waldon was under severe emotional distress at the time of the murders. He was abused as a child, had a history of mental illness and a witness had said he suffered from symptoms of untreated schizophrenia, including talking to himself and poor hygiene, among other indications of the mental illness.
Further, he suffered brain injuries and was a drug user. He was homeless, where criminality was more commonplace.
Still, Waldon made “careful and thoughtful actions” during the crimes, the judge noted.
For example, he used a knife to kill the victims instead of firing a gun at the victims, which could have alerted neighbors with the noise. The prosecution presented evidence that the murder weapon and clothing items were likely to have been discarded in a Lake Wire Inn dumpster, as motel video surveillance video of Waldon showed during the trial.
He also tried to burn down the house, torched the stolen car and deleted photos on his phone of the couple bound up with items in the bedroom, including a tie and belt.
Most of the Spencer hearings were dominated by testimony about the defense's claim of an intellectual disability. Abdoney ruled in October that Waldon did not meet the definition of intellectually disabled under Florida law.
Had Waldon met the state statute for an intellectual disability in death penalty cases, he would have been ineligible for the sentence.
A last plea for mercy in defense memo
The defense also considered the death penalty case against Waldon, whom they claimed to be a model prisoner and cooperative with law enforcement during the murder investigation, to be “unfair” because a key state witness at trial, Jarvis Collins, had attempted to pawn items taken from the Hendersons' home and had driven Waldon around town after the murders.
Most of the issues raised in the memorandum were not fully explained, or no evidence was presented to verify the claims, the judge said.
Referring to a sentencing memorandum, the defense team had also raised the specter of Florida’s lethal injection protocol as an inhumane punishment in a plea for mercy from the judge.
After reading from his sentencing order for about an hour, Abdoney said, “Good luck to you, Mr. Waldon.”
“Thank you.” Waldon replied.
Prior to the judge reading the court order, Waldon had declined any comment.
Source: theledger.com, Staff, January 6, 2026
"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
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